I have been inspired by other authors from the INSTRUCTABLE website to construct my own IQ Lamp using plastic sheets.

I actually have ordered an IQ Lamp from eBay and noticed that the material was not as thick and robust as I have thought. I reckon the commonly available 2Litre Milk Plastic Bottles would be a good source and good fit as the raw material for this project. There are plentiful of supply of such plastic milk bottles from work.

Other authors have suggested to use exacto cutter to cut out the shape of the building plate. I reckon I can get away and probably easier by using a pair of scissors to cut them out. The next challenge is how to transfer the cut out template onto the raw material, the plastic bottle sheet that repel normal marker ink.

Instead of marking directly onto the sheet of plastic, mounting the printed paper template onto the plastic sheet is the way to go. I use Microsoft Powerpoint to adjust the size of my template jpg file (I provide such file for your reference) while maintain the same aspect ratio. I then print out them out as handout print of 2 slides per page. The size is roughly the suitable fit onto the raw material of plastic sheet I salvaged from the 2L Milk Carton. There are stickers on 2 of the 4 side of the plastic bottle. So I can only get 2 blank sides per each milk carton. I just use sticky tape to tape down the 4 sides of the cutoff template print out onto the plastic. The cutting do not need to be that precise and using scissors to cut them out should be good enough for the purpose. The most difficult part in cutting out is the hooks as each plate got 4 hooks. You need to use the scissors skilfully and twist and turn to cut out the hooks.

As for the light source, the safest is to use LED because of low power and low heat. All I do is to wrap a string of Christmas light around a stress ball and use rubber band to secure them onto the stress ball as the leds string finishes. The wire just take it out from one of the 5 plates joint and it will hang the stress ball with all the LEDs around it at the centre of the IQ Lamp light shade. You just need to adjust at which point of the wire you want the 5 hooks joint to grip the wire. I also tried it on with a changing colour LED keyring. The result is amazing. I have a colour changing light feature.

It is not rocket science and anyone who puts his/her heart to it can do it and repurpose the recycle milk carton into something beautiful. All you need is time and patience. Vola. Enjoy.

I've been saving my milk cartons for a few months, on the off chance that I find an interesting project to use them for (no use letting them go to waste!). A friend found this, somehow, and sent me the link. By the end of the day, I had my IQ Lamp finished. In fact, this instructable is what made me register, just so I could post this comment. It took me 15 half-gallon cartons, and I just shoved a string of Christmas lights into it. Thanks for this!

hello!!! first comment on instructibles. cool! saw these in the commercial building at the fairgrounds. they from $25 to $75. much more than I would like to pay than for something I can make for so little. how many milk cartons did it take? plus how many cutouts? thanks!

the 2L milk carton i salvage in Sydney can only yield 2 panels. In order to make the 30 pieces lamp shade that I put out, you need 30 of them. So 15 milk carton. If you want to fasttrack the project, you can use the panels that got the milk company sticker on them. Here is the link to how to build the iq lamp in different size and shape: http://www.nos.com.my/trolleyvalley/iqlamp/

This is the most comprehensive building instruction web link I have sighted so far over the internet.

Thanx. Yeah do that and show us your final production if you really make one. These days the LED even the changing colour ones are becoming so easily available. You can hang one of them inside as the light source. They can run for a long time using button cell battery.